No one likes being treated like a mind-numbed robot or a beast of burden. We’re all human beings with our own struggles, hopes, dreams, friends, and family who want to live up to our full potential.

2. DO: Treat your employees as volunteers.

DON'T: Treat them as slaves or indentured servants.

We’re no longer living in the 19th Century; slavery and indentured servitude are now illegal. Your employees volunteered to work for you, so treat them as volunteers who could voluntarily go to work somewhere else. When you take away people's freedom, it denigrates them. Don’t hold their job security, salary or benefits over their heads to motivate them.

3. DO: Serve others.

DON'T: Expect others to serve you.

Management is really about serving others: customers, employees, subordinates, colleagues, superiors etc. Being a manager does not make you Lord of the Manor.

4. DO: Ask people.

DON'T: Tell people.

Asking others rather than telling others is in keeping with treating employees as volunteers and not indentured servants. Taking away someone's self-determination denigrates them and ultimately lowers productivity. You'll get the best work out of people if you allow them to make their own choices.

5. DO: Love people.

DON'T: Love money or things.

History is full of examples where people's love of money and things led to their downfall. Nothing good comes from putting money and things ahead of people.

6. DO: Lead your employees.

DON'T: Manage your employees.

You can manage things, but you must lead people. Get your employees to want to follow you; get them to want to take a bullet for you. When you reach that point with your followers, they'll give you their best work.

7. DO: Allow your employees to lead and manage themselves, their projects, and their time.

DON'T: Micro-manage your employees.

It’s counter-intuitive, but the more you empower your employees the more they’ll produce.Set expectations and goals, but let them produce the results.

The Pygmalion effect is the psychological phenomenon whereby the greater the expectation placed upon people, the better they perform. Whereas, the opposite of lower expectations placed upon individuals leads to poorer performance.

9. DO: Be honest and forthright with your employees.

DON'T: Be dishonest or disingenuous with your employees.

No one likes being lied to. No one likes being played. You’ll lose the trust of your employees if you’re anything but honest. If you need to keep something confidential, simply tell them you’re not at liberty to discuss that with them. They'll understand.

10. DO: Keep secrets and confidences.

DON'T: Betray someone’s confidence or spill the beans.

No one will confide in you if you’re known to spill the beans or betray their confidence.

11. DO: Set realistic and attainable goals and deadlines.

DON'T: Set unrealistic and unattainable goals or deadlines.

No one likes being pressured to perform. Good work takes time, so give it time. If you need something completed quickly, consider adding more people to work on the task, or rolling up your own sleeves and pitching in to help. Remember that prior planning prevents piss poor performance.

12. DO: Be humble, honest, ethical, and moral in everything you do and say.

Always seek to do the right thing even if it hurts you personally. Goodness and virtue always triumph over evil and vice.

13. DO: Be forgiving of others and seek forgiveness for any hurt you’ve caused.

DON'T: Hold grudges, give into anger, be vengeful, or be unforgiving of others.

When you forgive others, God will forgive you. So forgive and try to forget. Bless those who hurt you or slander you. Always take the high road.

14. DO: Work passionately, enthusiastically, and confidently with humility.

DON'T: Have a poor work ethic.

You owe it to yourself and many others to work hard. Hard work is good for the soul. Laziness is nothing to be proud of.

15. DO: Keep your priorities straight.

DON'T: Put work and your time ahead of your family.

You owe it to your family to make them a top priority in your life. If you have to consistently work overtime, maybe your organization needs to hire more people, or share your workload with others.Also, you can share your workload with your willing employees who want to advance their careers.

16. DO: Build a safe and supportive work environment.

DON'T: Use fear and intimidation to motivate your employees.

Numerous studies have shown that building safe and supportive work environments lead to higher productivity and loyalty. Managing by fear and intimidation will work in the short-term but never in the long-term.

17. DO: Stay in control of your emotions.

DON’T: Lose your cool.

Losing your temper or composure is never productive or good for moral. If you’re upset with someone, take a walk and cool off.It’s better to be silent and thought to be a fool than to speak and prove to be one.

18. DO: Seek peace and harmony.

DON’T: Argue or live in conflict with others.

Seek first to understand then to be understood.

19. DO: Praise and reward good behavior.DON'T: Reward bad behavior.There's nothing more discouraging to good employees who work hard and produce to get the same rewards as bad employees who don't.20. DO: Hold others accountable for their behavior and results.

DON’T: Look the other way, or turn a blind eye.

It’s only right and just that good behavior should be rewarded and bad behavior should not.

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About Me

Because we are all tempted to sacrifice our souls for profit, power, position, prestige, privilege, promotions, popularity, pride, prejudice, politics, prosperity, possessions, or pleasures. So by changing our paradigms, we can become the best versions of ourselves and help make our world a better place to live.

In this blog, we highlight bad practices using examples from current and past events, then we show what the better choices are. This is not to show that good always triumphs over evil, but only to show that better exists and that it's possible for people to operate in the better way. The history of business and how we grew to where we are gives us a perspective that things have been just as bad in the past and eventually got better, so there's still hope that things will cycle to the “better” yet again. We believe this blog is part of pushing the rope of improvement up the hill of progress. If you are dissatisfied with the status quo and looking for a better way to live and work, then bookmark our blog and follow us by email.

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BRYAN J. NEVA, SR. is a writer and electronics engineer from San Diego, California. He served as a Hospital Corpsman in the Navy during the Cold War and early War on Terror. He subsequently earned a BSEE and MBA degree from Old Dominion University, and then went on to work in the defense, medical device, and aerospace industries. A convert to Roman Catholicism, Bryan is a strong proponent of Catholic Social Justice and Economic teachings akin to conscientious capitalism and responsible, servant leadership. From his diverse background, he has a counterintuitive view of business management that values people over profits and the needs of the many over the wants of the few.

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ALLEN F. LAUDENSLAGER, JR. is a semi-retired writer from Seattle with a business and management background spanning over fifty years. After serving in the Army in Vietnam, he went on to work as an assembly line worker, a foreman, an electrician, a cabinetmaker, a small business owner, an electronics technician, a supervisor, a manager, a senior project manager, and a technical writer. With the knowledge and experience he has gained over a lifetime, he brings an insightful view of life, business, and management in today's global markets.